2013

This blog sees the light of day less than a Scalopus aquaticus (pictured above, better known as the common mole). What a specimen this one is. Sometimes Pokemon ain't got nothin' on real life...

I know I'm more than capable of being a "consistent blogger." Last year I posted some 150 times on The Film Tome (and-then-some on other blogs). Why then do I not update this one very oft? I am much more excited to talk movies than I am to talk about my life I suppose, but at the end of my life what am I going to be able to leave my posterity to know about me? Sure, they'll know I was downright obsessed with film and I would be delighted if any of them shared that passion, but they may want to know about other aspects of my life (AKA The Film of Jared Scott Lewis.)

A year ago this day I wrote a post entitled "2012." It was valuable to look back at what was going through my mind and down through my fingers that night. Hindsight makes them invaluable.  That, more than anything, should be the fire that fuels my drive to improve my dedication to this personal blog. So many things have transpired since then. I was in China at the time meeting my girlfriend's family. Since then we both graduated from BYU, we tied the knot and we moved to California. Some of the biggest milestones one confronts in one's lives and I've knocked a few out in one fell swoop of a year!

2012 will be a year I'll never forget. 2013 may not have as big events (in fact, I kind of hope it doesn't), but there are aspects aplenty in my life that I am working on improving. As I type this post my dear Nancy is in the other one putting together her first post of the year for The Perfect Bubble, a blog that she started this last year that is a far better documentation of our lives together than you'll currently find here. She also blogs about some of her favorite things there. Anyways, said blog post is about some of our New Year's Resolutions (five each). One of mine was to improve in my record keeping. In addition to daily journal entries I wanted to post on this blog once a week. So far, so good.

Here's to a New Year. Cheers to you and yours!

P.S.

My first summer out of high school I worked in Alaska (this was 2006). It was a hellish job, housekeeping, but I honed wanted habits, labored, and was constantly inspired by the mystere of that region. My brother-in-law was a body builder at this time (a great fit for my so-athletic-it-makes-me-ill sister). He pressured me into going to the Gustavus High School gym on some of my mornings there. In the weight room there were motivational phrases black-marker-ed onto the wall. One day we brought our own utensil and left our mark. Here's what I wrote:

If I ever return to that small town in South East Alaska I will seek out the building, the specific wall therein and see if my "tag" is still there. That inspection will just be for kicks, because I haven't forgotten or stopped striving to do what I wrote that day. Not by a long shot.

NANCY

Yesterday I made the biggest decision of my life. I asked a twenty-two year old gal (who was born and raised on the other side of the world) to marry me... to be my wife.

Her name is Zhou Kehui, but a lot of us call her Nancy.

I often think of my life in terms of the ultimate film. In the grand screenplay that it's based on the scene when she first appeared went something like this...

INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT


A BEAUTIFUL ASIAN (20) walks through the apartment door. 


Time stops for the AVERAGE-LOOKING WHITE KID (21).

She literally entered through the door of my home at that time, passing a threshold into my shabby apartment and also walking into my life. The rest, as they say, is history.

Yesterday morning I drove Nancy past that very apartment building. "I used to live there," I reminded her. She commented on it being the place where we first met. The drive took us to 9th East in Provo, Utah where I headed North to Rock Canyon Park. We passed the MTC and the Provo Temple along the way. It was a brief, landmark journey. I had asked Nancy the night before to help with a service project. It was a test, a final test I suppose. Would she be willing to get up on a Saturday morning and do some good for the community? I had informed her that we were going to help pick up trash at the park. She wasn't happy about it (who would be?), but after some coaxing she tagged along.

We reached the park. I parked.  Nancy got out of the car with one of those big, pitch-black garbage bags. I took my time getting out (I had to stuff the ring box in the left pocket of my jeans - not easy). Nancy, bless her soul, was already starting to pick up trash. We walked around and couldn't find the others. She was confused. I wasn't. I suggested we just clean on our own.

Nancy was on one side of the picnic tables and benches, I was on the other. I wasted absolutely no time. I got the ring box out of my pocket and got on one knee. We hadn't been "picking" for more than a minute when I called for her. "Oh Nancy! Look at this!" I was beside a chain-link fence, pointing down in a ravine it protected me from. "Look down there. Do you see that?" She came over to where I was. Again, she was confused. I wasn't. She was wondering what I was so eager for her to see. When she was standing beside me I produced the open ring box and popped the question.

"Oh my gosh!" (She said this when she saw the ring, before I even asked.)
"What the heck!" (She said this after I asked.)
"Yes." (She said this a few seconds later once she had caught her breath. She had started to cry immediately.)

I have such an accurate record of those events because I had set my iPhone to record (audio only) in my shirt pocket.

Yesterday Nancy made the biggest decision of her life. She said, "Yes."

In truth, it was not a descision made yesterday. It had been a long time coming and we had already been planning a wedding this year. We were both anticipating a proposal, but I was lucky enough to have a bit of a surprise for her.

I wanted to do something film-related for the proposal (Nancy and I both have a passion for film and filmmaking) so I decided to do a loosely-based reenactment that we would post to YouTube and Facebook in order to announce our engagement. We did that yesterday afternoon. I had a vision of what I wanted it to be and it turned out even better (usually it is the other way around). My roommate helped us shoot the short film with Nancy's iPad using the 8MM app. After we were done shooting I edited the raw footage on the iPad with the Silent Film Director Pro app. Technology. See the result below:

I love Nancy.

2012

It was a year ago today that I began this blog and I have not forgotten it (though it may seem that way as I have not posted here in over 6 months). Many-a-thing have occurred in my life since then, including my whole L.A. experience and yet another semester at BYU. I currently write this from China, another adventure I will have to fill you in on sometime.

I have said (and I believe) that any given day is a great day to change, but today is always the best. New Year's is famous (infamous?) for people setting goals and resolutions. I have yet to sit down and construct a list yet of my own, but me writing this is working in the right direction of one of them. I want to document my own life better, both herein and on my own in journals.

I return to the United States in a few days and begin my last semester of college. Times will be a changing and my immediate future is not as clear as many college graduates. Regardless of this uncertainty, I am loving my life and constantly finding ways to improve and find joy in the journey. While we may have plans we do not really know where we want to be until we get there (as a wise counselor recently told me).

My mom sometimes says "Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet." Every day we have was yesterday's tomorrow, but it ain't every day we get a new year with no mistakes in it. Last night I saw the new year in while standing near the piers of Hong Kong. Fireworks and thousands and thousands of Asians surrounded me. It was a reminder that we're all in this together (thanks "High School Musical").

Now we are here, 2012. The year the Mayans foretold the end of our world as we know it. I am not worried about the world coming to a close, for I take stock in the scripture that says no man is going to know when it happens. Correct me if I am wrong, but it is compared to a thief in the night. You never know when they might break in, but you can get an alarm system, or a dog, or a gun. It is my wish and prayer that we all live our lives like it is going to end, finding joy in the journey, and then celebrate immensely a year from now when we ring in 2013. 

Happy New Year!